1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a light emitting diode (LED) package structure, and more particularly, to an LED package structure with a fuse.
2. Description of Related Art
Since an LED possesses advantages of long lifetime, small size, shock-proof property, low heat emission and low electric power consumption, LEDs have been widely used as indicative lamps or light sources for various household appliances and instruments. LEDs are even used in various types of mobile electronic products or large-sized array-type LED products such as car electronic products, wireless communication products, traffic signal system and outdoor bulletin boards.
LED chips are typically current-driven, and thus a stable current flow should be supplied to the LED chips as a power source, such that the LED chips can emit stable illumination lights. In the past, most of the LED chips are low power LED chips, which require low driving current to provide light. Nevertheless, the high illumination and high power applications of LED have gradually become trendy. In addition, most circuit systems now require and drive a plurality of LED chips electrically connected in series or in parallel, instead of a single LED chip. In view of the above, a circuit system has to supply higher current to drive the LED chips than before. It should be noted that when the driving current increases, the probability of short circuit increases as well. Particularly, as the power source is normally a voltage source and as the impedance of each of the LEDs may be substantially different, the current may become unstable. For this reason, when the current inside the circuit system becomes extremely high, the LED chips may be damaged or burned down. Therefore, prevention of damage to LED chips due to increase of input current and increasing the circuit protection of LED package structure are critical issues.